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Due to the very nature of their work, police officers are put into dangerous, often life threatening situations day in and day out over the course of their careers. In response to this, these officers are trained in various use of force techniques, which fall on an ever escalating continuum, ranging from verbal commands, to hands-on tactics, all the way up to deadly force. Clearly, the most damaging tactic in the continuum is the use of deadly force, not only so for the suspect, but also for the officer(s) involved. Therefore, the focus of this research will be those officer-involved shootings; more importantly, it will study the psychological, as physiological consequences experienced by the officers in question. Secondarily, the effects felt by the officer’s immediate family.
The subject of police use of deadly force is a largely misunderstood and overlooked topic in society: people are aware of it, and generally accept it, however, most citizens do not understand the consequences it has not only on the suspect, but also the officer. Because of this, research on the topic, especially regarding psychological and physiological effects, is sparse. However, the research that has been done on it, especially David Klinger’s Police Responses to Officer-Involved Shootings, has been generally pretty thorough.
Simply because of the highly specific nature of the intended target population, the researchers we reviewed used non-random samples, usually consisting of lengthy, specific surveys mailed out to police departments and law enforcement officers. In Rivard, Dietz, Martell, and Widawski’s work, Acute Disassociative Responses in Law Enforcement Officers Involved in Critical Shooting Incidents: The Clinical and Forensic Implications, they simply used the FBI’s database to send out surveys to active law enforcement officers in the United States, receiving only 122 responses from an undisclosed number sent out. From these returned questionnaires, the researchers were able...